"The weather's dreadful, isn't it?" Helga Hufflepuff, like most ordinary Britons, began the conversation with a comment about the weather.
"Yes." Cedric didn't know what exactly Professor White was up to, but he still stopped to chat with her.
"So? Confident? Can you win?" Helga looked at Cedric with an expectant gaze—this young man had long since caught her attention.
Handsome and charming, intelligent and studious, and with a magnetic personality—he was so exceptional he almost didn't seem like the rest of Hufflepuffs in this generation.
Cedric had originally intended to respond without hesitation, brimming with confidence, with something like, "We can win!" But under Professor White's gaze, the words that came out of his mouth instead, as if by some strange compulsion, were, "Hard to say."
Honestly, with Hufflepuff's current line-up, beating Gryffindor was indeed a tall order.
If not for this storm, Hufflepuff's chances of victory would have been almost zero. The wind and rain had, in fact, narrowed the gap between the two teams, giving Hufflepuff a sliver of a chance—but even so, it was only shifting the odds from nine-to-one to seven-to-three.
Helga nodded, making an "mm-hmm" sound.
"Indeed, it's truly difficult for you to beat them."
Cedric: "…"
You're here to undermine us? Come on, I just managed to muster a bit of courage and told you the truth!
Professor White's overly blunt words left Cedric momentarily at a loss for how to respond. He could only try to sidestep her and head into the Great Hall for breakfast.
"Wait, don't go!" Helga hurriedly called after him. "It's precisely because it's difficult that you must put in more effort. And effort isn't just physical—it's mental as well. Diggory, you need to think."
"Think?" Cedric frowned.
"Yes, think. Think carefully about how to deal with this storm. Perhaps the key to victory lies within the wind and rain?" Hufflepuff said no more, walking into the Great Hall on her own.
She had many plans and knew many spells. She could stop the storm, and could even—literally—make the rain fall only on the heads of the Gryffindor players. But she intended to leave the problem for the children to solve themselves; she would only act as a guide.
That was what a teacher should do.
Watching Professor White's departing figure, Cedric fell into deep thought: How should they deal with the storm? If only the rain would fall just on Gryffindor… Wait—!
A sudden memory surfaced from the recesses of Cedric's mind—a spell and a type of potion, both entirely permissible within the rules, that would be extremely useful at this moment. He immediately rushed toward the hospital wing.
Fifteen minutes before the team was set to depart, Cedric finally rushed into the Great Hall—by this time, Wood had already finished his pep talk and was leading his players straight to the pitch.
Cedric's arrival made the Hufflepuff players breathe a sigh of relief; for a moment, they had thought Diggory had changed his mind and didn't want to play today.
"Take these with you, and drink them during the match." Cedric shoved small bottles into his teammates' hands.
"Drinking functional potions during a match is forbidden…" one player said worriedly. "That's against the rules."
"This isn't a functional potion—it's Madam Pomfrey's cold remedy. When you drink it, steam will come out of your ears, driving out the dampness and making your body feel much more comfortable," Cedric explained seriously.
This potion wouldn't make them stronger, but it would make them feel at ease even in the wind and rain—and in weather like this, "comfort" was a kind of fighting power.
After distributing the potion, Cedric signaled for his teammates to gather around, then pulled out his wand—
"Impervius!"
He cast a Water-Repelling Charm on his teammates' robes. The enchanted wizard robes became almost like raincoats, allowing their bodies to stay as dry as possible in the downpour.
"Let's go!" With all preparations complete, Cedric and his teammates set off together.
The moment they stepped out of the castle, Cedric suddenly felt that his preparations might not have been as thorough as he thought. The howling wind sent them staggering, and the combined roar of thunder, rain, and wind all but deafened them.
Worse still, while their robes were waterproof, the wind drove icy rain against their faces, blurring their vision and leeching away their body heat.
"Don't panic, the Gryffindor team's situation is even worse than ours!" Cedric said—before immediately clamping his mouth shut to avoid swallowing too much cold wind and rain.
Students were also filing into the stands; not even a storm could dampen their determination to watch a Quidditch match.
Rhys looked at the students trudging toward the pitch through the downpour and felt speechless. Did these kids have so few recreational activities that they were this desperate for entertainment?
Still, he didn't mock them—because technically, he was one of them.
Of course, with his domain, Rhys was hardly going to be affected by a mere storm. The rain was repelled by an invisible wall before it could touch him. Using magic, he created a space of several cubic meters around himself, ensuring it was untouched by wind or rain.
Knowing Rhys had this ability, Daphne immediately tucked herself behind him, watching the other students—soaked like drowned rats—with leisurely satisfaction.
"This is the wonder of magic!" she said proudly. "Those people are practically like Muggles."
Rhys glanced at her and said softly, "Daphne, using magic to hold open a space like this isn't difficult. What really shows skill is shaping it just right so it only covers the surface of your own body. Want to see how that works?"
"No, no, no!" Daphne shook her head like a rattle-drum. "These shoes cannot get wet today!"
Rhys was only teasing and didn't actually shrink the magic space. Then he noticed Astoria appear at the castle doors. The little girl clearly didn't want her clothes getting soaked either, and she came up with a rather curious solution—
First, she cast a Waterproof Charm on her clothes, turning her robes into a kind of "raincoat." Then she curled herself up, tucking inside the robes, pulled the hood over her head, and wrapped herself completely. After that, she used a Flying Charm, skimming just above the ground as she sped toward the pitch.
Rhys was momentarily dumbfounded by Astoria's ingenuity—she clearly understood how to use magic flexibly.
When she reached him, he intercepted her quickly, pulling her into the magic space.
Looking at her face hidden under the hood, Rhys couldn't help but ask, "Like that, can you even see the road ahead?"
"Not really, I was flying by feel," Astoria admitted honestly.
Rhys: "…"
"You did well, but don't do that again next time. I'll teach you how to use magic to keep out wind and rain when we get back."
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